WILKES LOSES APPEAL FOR NEW TRIAL IN CUNNINGHAM CASE

Former Poway defense contractor convicted of making bribes is fighting 12-year sentence

A federal appeals court refused Monday to order a new trial for the former Poway defense contractor convicted of bribing then-Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham.

Brent Wilkes received a 12-year prison sentence in 2008 after he was convicted of giving cash and expensive gifts, meals and trips to the Republican congressman in exchange for lucrative government contracts. Wilkes served less than a year, then was freed on bond while his appeals were pending.

A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Monday that the lower court did not make a mistake when it denied Wilkes a new trial.

Attorney Shereen Charlick argued that new evidence pointed to Wilkes’ innocence — in particular, a statement Cunningham made from prison that Wilkes did not bribe him. The lawyer also argued that court records corroborated Wilkes’ trial testimony that any alleged bribe money he had provided to the congressman was lost in a fraud scheme.

The court rejected those arguments, noting that all of that information was available at the time of Wilkes’ trial and therefore was not “newly discovered” evidence. The three-judge panel agreed with the lower court that the evidence “does not in any way establish a probability of acquitting” Wilkes.

The court also considered whether a witness who was going to testify in Wilkes’ defense should have been granted immunity. The court found Wilkes was unable to cite anything the witness would have said on the stand that would have contradicted testimony from government witnesses. Therefore, the court said, Wilkes’ right to a fair trial was not violated.

During the 2007 trial, federal prosecutors argued Wilkes was the mastermind who showed a handful of other businessmen how to bribe Cunningham, a congressman from Rancho Santa Fe with an appetite for women, antique furniture and gourmet food.

Two of those businessmen, Joel Combs and Mitchell Wade, were granted immunity from any charges and testified for the prosecution.

Wilkes denied any involvement in the bribery scheme. He testified he believed a series of payments to Cunningham was to purchase a yacht, the “Duke-Stir,” and he said a $525,000 check was an investment in a company that he was later cheated out of, not a bribe to pay off Cunningham’s second mortgage.

Cunningham resigned from office and pleaded guilty in 2005 to conspiracy to commit bribery, mail fraud, wire fraud and tax evasion. He served a little more than eight years before he was released from prison in June.